Latest Articles about Europe's East
SBU ACCUSED OF PLAYING POLITICAL GAMES IN KHARKIV
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has become embroiled in a new scandal. The main opposition force, the Party of Regions (PRU), has accused the SBU of playing political games after SBU servicemen carried out a controversial search at the Kharkiv City Council. Although the... MORE
HISTORIANS DEBATE 1918 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN BELARUS
On March 25, opposition demonstrators marked the 90th anniversary of the declaration of independence of the Belarusian National (People’s) Republic (BNR). The crowd was estimated at several thousand and refused to be confined to the officially sanctioned route from the National Academy of Sciences to... MORE
EXTRANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS IN THE WAY OF GEORGIAN AND UKRAINIAN MAPS AT THE NATO SUMMIT
In on-the-record interventions and, especially, at off-the-record policy conferences, German officials lay out a whole collection of arguments against Membership Action Plans (MAPs) for Georgia and Ukraine at the upcoming NATO summit. Several West European governments share some of those arguments to some degree or... MORE
TYMOSHENKO WANTS KYIV MAYOR OUT
Yesterday, March 18, the Ukrainian parliament called an early election for the post of mayor of Kyiv. This is a victory for Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc (BYuT), which spearheaded a campaign to oust Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, accusing him of corruption. However, there is... MORE
TYMOSHENKO MOST POPULAR POLITICAL FORCE IN UKRAINE
Parliament’s March 18 vote to call pre-term elections for Kyiv’s city mayor was a second major victory for Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko this month, following the new gas contract with Russia signed on March 6. The vote is symbolically important because Ukraine’s legislation requires that... MORE
U.S. AMBASSADOR LEAVES BELARUS
A diplomatic dispute between Belarus and the United States reached a new low on March 12, when U.S. Ambassador Karen Stewart was recalled to Washington for talks. Earlier State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey had declared that the ambassador would remain in Minsk despite the... MORE
MOLDOVA SEEKS GREAT-POWER ENDORSEMENT OF ITS NEUTRALITY
Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin will attend NATO’s summit in early April to seek a post-summit endorsement of Moldova’s permanent neutrality, in a document to be signed by the Western powers with Russia. Chisinau defines such neutrality as a commitment to never join military alliances and... MORE
UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT UNBLOCKED, NATO DISPUTE OFF AGENDA
The opposition Party of Regions (PRU) of former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych has finally backed off its brinksmanship games over Ukraine’s application for a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP). The PRU and their allies, the Communists, had blocked the parliamentary rostrum since the end of... MORE
YUSHCHENKO LOOKS TO GRAND COALITION TO REPLACE TYMOSHENKO
On March 15 the government of Yulia Tymoshenko will mark its first 100 days in office, a period that has been a baptism by fire. Not only has the government faced relentless attacks from the opposition Party of Regions (PRU), it has also faced a... MORE
PARTY OF REGIONS DISCUSSES LANGUAGE, NATO AT FORUM
Ukraine’s main opposition force, the Party of Regions (PRU), organized what it called a “congress of people’s deputies of all levels” in the eastern town of Severodonetsk on Saturday, March 1. It discussed topics such as official languages and NATO membership. Almost 3,700 representatives of... MORE